Impeached President Roh Moo-hyun began forming his legal defense team yesterday as South Korea braced for more massive anti-impeachment protests.
Rival North Korea -- in a veiled reference to the historic move to oust Roh -- meanwhile expressed concern over a "very unstable" political situation, and "unprecedented confusion" in the South.
Citing the state of affairs, Pyongyang requested that a round of inter-Korean economic talks, scheduled to begin today in the South, be switched to the Northern city of Kaesong, according to an official North Korean radio broadcast monitored by South Korea's Yonhap news agency.
Earlier in the day, Roh tapped a former adviser on civil affairs, Moon Jae-in, to put together a legal team to defend the president in the country's first ever impeachment, Roh spokesman Yoon Tae-young said. Moon is nicknamed "the king of senior presidential secretaries" for his weighty influence.
The Constitutional Court, which will rule on whether the impeachment of Roh was constitutional, plans to meet on Thursday to review the case.
Dubbed by some as a "coup without guns," the opposition-controlled parliament stunned the nation on Friday by impeaching Roh on charges of violating election rules and incompetence.
Opinion polls show that about seven in 10 South Koreans oppose the impeachment.
On Saturday night, about 50,000 angry demonstrators streamed into the streets of downtown Seoul, singing songs, waving candles and holding placards reading: "Defend Democracy!"
The movement against Roh's impeachment has found support not only among his political backers, but also from civic groups that have criticized alleged corruption in Roh's administration, his decision to send troops to Iraq and his recent tussle with authorities over illegal campaign funds ahead of next month's parliamentary elections.
In the run-up to the controversial impeachment, one Roh supporter set himself on fire and another tried to drive his car up the National Assembly steps and into the building.
But protests have been mostly peaceful.
Trying to quell concerns of a national division over the impeachment, the pro-government Uri Party vowed not to organize or lead any street protests that could fuel political unrest.
"This incident is clearly unconstitutional and illegal, but we will not stage any street demonstrations," Chung told business leaders yesterday.
Chung also urged the Constitutional Court for a swift ruling on the impeachment.
"It is completely up to the Constitutional Court whether this national emergency will last a week, a month or three months," he said.
The People's Solidarity for Participatory Democracy, a civic group that sponsored Saturday's protest, called for nightly rallies in downtown Seoul to oppose what it calls the "oppression by the majority under the pretext of law."
The group is often critical of Roh, but says the opposition has gone too far.
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